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Hey guys!

I recently played a large game of FOW in which I fielded a US Rifle company and a US Tank Company (needed two companies to make up the points). One thing I noticed is that US Rifles are poor on the offence. Sure, they get their automatic rifles special rule, and you can augment platoons with HMGs, LMGs and mortars, but they just don't seem to cut it. In this game my tanks and reconnaissance did all the hard work, so much so that by the time I reached a third of the way into the table, most of my tanks had been taken out by an over abundance of 88s. My rifles did nothing, as I dared not assault all that German infantry armed to the teeth with MGs and supported by Infantry Support guns. Even when pinned, MGs have ROF 2, and with six of them staring down their noses at you, the chances of getting through all that defensive fire -even with veterans- seems very slim indeed. In the end it did not matter. A damn tiger ace skill won the game for the German players. But I won't get started on that rubbish.

Anyhow, I was wandering if there are any American players out there who use Rifles successfully on the attack? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am tired of being thrown back when attempting to assault! There must be something I am doing wrong!

Rifles aren't supposed to be on the offense. That's why Infantry Companies have the Always Defend special rule. Your rifles dig in and defend objectives (a properly dug in vet rifle team is hard to dislodge) while tanks and things go on the offense. Infantry Only companies simply defend, since you should be able to deal with just about anything.

American tanks aren't the strongest, but you have a numerical advantage. At least, that's what should be.

The US has combined arms as their greatest strength, maximising their mobility (stabilisers/truscott trott) plus the use of 'time on target' means that they should be able to hit the enemy where they want, soften them up andctrencassault them

I'd wager that the 'damn tiger ace skill' didnt win it for the Germans, sounds like they had a solid list and stuck to the plan (defend the Reich).

Best advice would be to stick at it, the USA has some pretty nasty rules of its own.

Thanks guys! No honestly, my ally and myself had the German players on the backfoot, despite the initial sluggishness of our advance. The guy with the tigers rolled 'Schnell!' (spelling?) as the skill, and for the Germans to win, it required them to make a stormtroopers move (to contest another objective). He rolled a 2.. a 2!! Heartbroken is what we were... He would have failed that roll normally!
The funny thing was, each of the German players had a different branch of the German army... Naturally they bickered constantly; one of them even went as far as bombarding his ally for 'the greater good.' We tried to take advantage of their fractured friendship but it wasn't to be I suppose.

My point is that some situations force you to attack with your rifles, which is difficult to do, even with all the great support options. Admittedly I fail to take the combined arms approach most of the time... I tend to assign different platoons to different jobs instead of overwhelming a certain point in my opponents defensive line... I'm still learning!

Assaulting with infantry takes time to learn - don't worry

Look at the U.S. Force costs and advantages -
Looking at Fortress Europe:

Cheap airpower, cheap artillery/mortars. bazookas to name a few..

Look at rules advantages: TOT, Hit em with Everything, Stabilizers, Dismounted MGs, Autorifles, Tank Destroyers

1. To look at your infantry, they are built around manuever and defense... Your advantage is you can move them with no penalty... A German MG team or any Rifle/MG team loses its advantage as soon as it moves.
Defensively, attaching LMG/HMG teams, dismounting and arming people with LMGs and .50 Cals in addition to liberal Bazookas makes your infantry a tough nut to crack on defense.

2. Stabilizers make your tanks - though crappy by late war standards - mobile. Plus don't forget one key to your manueverability... your Shermans can pop smoke!!! This is key for being able to mask your manuever! Again American strength is mobility.

3. Now you come to the king of battle - your artillery. Cheap plus TOT plus Hit em with Everything means your artilery is downright nasty. Plus you can dump smoke to cover your advance. Add in an AOP and you are going to be great.

4. Jeeps. Jeeps? You say. Well think about it. Your FO's are all in jeeps, your I&R guys are in jeeps, half your command has access to jeeps. Your opponent is going to get sick of seeing jeeps and he is going to wonder what nastiness your jeeps are going to unload on him. Artillery? Just Recon? Tank Destroyers? It is a total pain.

5. Airpower the cool thing here is priority air support is cheap. P47s can blunt any enemy counterattack, keep his 88s firing against them instead of your tanks. All to your good.

6. Now the tough part how to assemble a US assault: As has been stated, the key is your artillery and mortars, shermans popping smoke and manuever... Now your infantry is a tad weak on the offensive but they do have some nice things...
Bazookas. You also have access to three nice offensive options: A & P platoons - add the two bazookas and this makes a great assault unit. Assault 3 is good and nasty... If you want a little more power, an Engineer Combat Platoon with 4 bazookas and one attached Sherman with a Dozer Blade... This will eat through razor wire and has a healthy concentration of firepower. Finally a ranger platoon Fearless troops with an SMG team... Sounds good to me. But the key is smoke and firesuppression through artillery and supporting fire (60 mm mortars and HMG teams.)

Thanks DAaddict! I shall take that on board! You see, one guy in particular has taught me how to play the game. The way he has done that most of the time is to put a load of Konigstigers on the board and blast the hell out of my Shermans. Being pasted time and time again isn't the best to way learn I think! I get sucked into slugging matches too often; it's probably time I did as you say and use my maneuverability to my advantage, and show him how fun it is to get absolutely destroyed!

Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy. But he has a reputation for taking heavy stuff ALL the time. He never ever goes a game without some form of 88mm gun!

Next time he takes a small list of big German cats deploy your armourless US infantry and smile as he's now obliged to come dig you out with his handful of very expensive toys. A Bazooka can open even the biggest cat in assault.

Hope it helps... Remember when making a U.S. list you can automatically drop 22 81mm+ tubes on a table plus at least a Sherman company plus a full rifle company with HW team... You should make him fear American artillery!!! BTW - 1 battery of 155s is a must. Nothing like S5 bombardments doing TOT hits on the Tiger's top armor... Let him sit still at his own peril.

Always remeber that you now adays have the mixed bombardment. US rifle can easly drop two Devestating each turn.

And Time on target is your best friend.

Thanks for all the advice guys! It's surprising how many of the special rules slip my mind when I'm actually playing. I have a game tomorrow night, against a foe who prefers infantry lists to hordes of Tigers, and we are fighting in the Bocage so it should make for an interesting game!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

DAaddict wrote:
You should make him fear American artillery!!! BTW - 1 battery of 155s is a must. Nothing like S5 bombardments doing TOT hits on the Tiger's top armor... Let him sit still at his own peril.

Hehe my beloved 155s have taken out more tanks than my TDs have! I rarely go a game without these beasts :-)